Originally from Canada, Wendy has made a home in Australia and her speculative fiction has appeared in Interzone and Tesseracts. She was an alumnus of the 2004 Clarion South workshop.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Greig Beck’s This Green Hell (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Chuck McKenzie was born in 1970, and still spends much of his time there. He currently fills multiple roles as a bookseller, reviewer, and zombie obsessive, only one of which pays the bills – although sometimes he also writes short fiction and gets paid for it, which is nice.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Spectrum Collection by the Dark Continents Collective.

Lucy Sussex was born in New Zealand in 1957. She has degrees in English and Librarianship from Monash University, and is a freelance researcher, editor and writer. She has published widely, writing anything from literary criticism to horror and detective stories. In addition she is a literary archaeologist, rediscovering and republishing the nineteenth-century Australian crime writers Mary Fortune and Ellen Davitt. Her short story, `My Lady Tongue’ won a Ditmar (Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award) in 1988. In 1994 she was a judge for the international Tiptree award, which honours speculative fiction exploring notions of gender. Her first adult novel, The Scarlet Rider, is about biography, Victorian detective fiction, voodoo and a ghost.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews  Managing Death by Trent Jamieson.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews  Transformation Space (Sentients of Orion Book 4) by Marianne De Pierres.

Jason Fischer is based in Adelaide, South Australia. He attended Clarion South in 2007, was shortlisted in the 2009 Ditmar Awards for Best New Talent, and is a recent Winner of the Writers of the Future contest. He has stories in Dreaming Again, Apex, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Aurealis Magazine.

Both stories appeared in Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann.

Simon Petrie is a NZ-born research scientist now living in Canberra. His short fiction has appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Aurealis, Kaleidotrope, Murky Depths, Sybil’s Garage, and arguably in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.His debut collection Rare Unsigned Copy: Tales of Rocketry, Ineptitude, and Giant Mutant Vegetables was released in 2011, he’s won the Sir Julius Vogel award for Best New Talent, was shortlisted for a Ditmar in the same category, and he’s sent out far too few short stories for consideration – although critics of his work may disagree with the last statement. He’s a member of the Andromeda Spaceways co-operative, the SpecFicNZ collective, and the Canberra Speculative Fiction guild, a judge for the Aurealis Awards, and an occasional book reviewer.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Souls Along The Meridian by Bill Congreve.

Lee Battersby is the multi-award winning author of over seventy stories in Australia, the US and Europe, as well as numerous poems, reviews, and ephemera, including a stream of minicomics and comic strips spread out over the years like illegitimate children. He blogs irregularly at The Battersblog.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Library of Forgotten Books by Rjurik Davidson.

Nathan Burrage is a Sydney-based writer and author of Fivefold, a mystic thriller drawing on the rich tradition of the Kabbalah. Nathan has published short fiction in a number of Australian speculative fiction magazines and anthologies.

Keith Stevenson reviews Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson.

Rjurik Davidson has written short stories, essays, screenplays and reviews. He has been short-listed for the Ditmar Award for Best Short Story three times, the Aurealis Award once and won the Ditmar award for Best New Talent in 2005 and been published in Years Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volumes One and Two, Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror 2006, Scifiction, Aurealis, Borderlands and elsewhere. His new book, Unwrapped Sky, is available now from TOR.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy.

Tansy Rayner Roberts is a Tasmanian writer of speculative fiction.  Her Creature Court Trilogy is published by HarperVoyager featuring shapechangers and flappers. Tansy is also one of the three voices of the Galactic Suburbia podcast.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Life Lottery by Ian Irvine.

Peter M Ball is a Brisbane-based writer whose short fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine and the Interfictions II anthology. He attended Clarion South in 2007 and published a unicorn-noir novella, Horn, with Twelfth Planet Press in 2009.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Return of The Prophet by Greig Beck.

Sydney-based writer Margo Langan was predominantly known for writing YA short fiction which was collected in her very successful books White Time, Black Juice and Red Spike. However she came to international prominence when her novel Tender Morsels won the World Fantasy Award. ‘Sea-Hearts’,  her spellbinding novella for coeur de lion’s X6 anthology, also won the World Fantasy Award and was the basis for the award-winning Sea Hearts novel (Allen and Unwin).

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Siren Beat by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Jason Fischer is based in Adelaide, South Australia. He attended Clarion South in 2007, was shortlisted in the 2009 Ditmar Awards for Best New Talent, and is a recent Winner of the Writers of the Future contest. He has stories in Dreaming Again, Apex, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Aurealis Magazine.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Slice of Life by Paul Haines.

Ben Peek is the author of Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth and Black Sheep. His short fiction has been reprinted in numerous Year’s Best volumes, and have appeared in Overland, Polyphony, Leviathan, Fantasy Magazine, Aurealis, and more. In addition to this, he has written reviews, an online comic, and a pamphlet he gave away for free anonymously.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Mirror Space by Marianne De Pierres.

Matthew Chrulew’s fiction has been published in Canterbury 2100, Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror, The Worker’s Paradise, ASIF and Aurealis. He is currently writing a cultural and natural history of the mammoth for Reaktion Books.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Terminator Gene by Ian Irvine.

Marianne lives in Queensland and is the author of the best-selling Parrish Plessis and Sentients of Orion series. She also writes humorous crime novels under the pseudonym, Marianne Delacourt.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Beneath The Dark Ice by Greig Beck.

‘Always’ is previously unpublished.

‘… They First Make Mad’ appeared in Agog! Fantastic Fiction (Agog! Press)

‘Come to Daddy’ appeared in Agog! Smashing Stories (Agog! Press)

Trent Jamieson – Brisbane SF writer – has sold over sixty short stories and won the 2005 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story (‘Slow and Ache’), and the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Short Story (‘Cracks’). His short story collection Reserved for Travelling Shows was published in 2006. Trent recently sold a series, Death Works, to Orbit UK, US and Australia. Trent has taught creative writing at QUT and Clarion South, and worked as fiction editor of Redsine magazine.

Keith Stevenson does lots of stuff – publishing, editing, podcasting, book reviewing. But what he really likes to do is write. He’s had stories published in Aurealis Magazine, Agog! Fantastic Fiction and Oceans of the Mind.

Brendan Duffy is the Aurealis Awards winner for science fiction short stories in 2003 and 2004, with ‘Louder Echo’ and ‘Come to Daddy’. ‘Louder Echo’ was also selected for Hartwell & Cramer’s Year’s Best Fantasy 4, and ‘The Tale of Enis Cash, Smallgoods Smokehand’ was selected for Congreve & Marquardt’s Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy 2004. He is a graduate of the inaugural Clarion South speculative fiction writers’ workshop of 2004, and was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts emerging writer’s grant in 2004. He was also nominated for Best New Talent Ditmar Award (2003 and 2004), Best Novella Ditmar Award (2004), Best Fantasy Short Story Aurealis Award (2003), and the Pushcart Prize (2004).

Brendan is currently writing a novel set in 16th century Italy, based on the secret life of the renaissance scientist and playwright, Giambattista della Porta.

Deborah Biancotti’s debut short story collection, A Book of Endings was described as a ‘superb collection of short stories’ by Graham Joyce, with stories The Age calls ‘succinct and powerful’, and is available from Twelfth Planet Press.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Slights by Kaaron Warren.

Miranda Siemienowicz is a Melbourne writer of dark literary surrealism. She has had stories and essays published in venues including Overland, Quadrant, Hecate and Island. Her work has been reprinted in The Best Horror of the Year Vol. 1 (Ellen Datlow, Night Shade Books) and Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror 2008 (Angela Challis, Brimstone Press).

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Horn by Peter Ball.

Brendan Duffy is the Aurealis Awards winner for science fiction short stories in 2003 and 2004, with ‘Louder Echo’ and ‘Come to Daddy’. ‘Louder Echo’ was also selected for Hartwell & Cramer’s Year’s Best Fantasy 4, and ‘The Tale of Enis Cash, Smallgoods Smokehand’ was selected for Congreve & Marquardt’s Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy 2004. He is a graduate of the inaugural Clarion South speculative fiction writers’ workshop of 2004, and was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts emerging writer’s grant in 2004. He was also nominated for Best New Talent Ditmar Award (2003 and 2004), Best Novella Ditmar Award (2004), Best Fantasy Short Story Aurealis Award (2003), and the Pushcart Prize (2004).

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Dead Path by Stephen M Irwin.

Richard Harland is the author of numerous adult and YA speculative fiction novels, including his steampunk adventure Worldshaker from Allan and Unwin, and countless adult, YA and children’s fantasy, science fiction and horror short stories. Richard won the Aurealis best fantasy short story award in 2004 and 2005. The Black Crusade, the prequel to his horror novel The Vicar of Morbing Vyle, won the Golden Aurealis in 2005. Richard’s huge website includes links to his valuable writers’ resource Writing Tips.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Angel Rising by Dirk Flinthart.

Author website

Sean Williams has been described as ‘the premier Australian speculative fiction writer of the age’ and ‘King of Chameleons’ for the diversity of his output.  Forthcoming releases include The Grand Conjunction, a gothic/noir space opera set over one million years in the future, and The Scarecrow, a fantasy novel for kids set in his award-winning world of The Change. His novelisation of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was the first game tie-in ever to reach #1 on the New York Times hardcover list while Magic Dirt: the Best of Sean Williams was the first to receive the Aurealis Award for Best Collection.

When not writing, he sits on various management committees (including those of Australia’s oldest writers’ centre and the national literacy initiative, The Big Book Club Inc.), teaches (for such organisations as Clarion South), travels to conventions (Worldcon and Gencon Oz among them in recent times), and reads for several literary awards and assessment bodies (he is a past winner of the Writers of the Future Contest, of which he is now a judge).  He lives in Adelaide with his wife and family.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Chaos Space by Marianne De Pierres.

Trent Jamieson – Brisbane SF writer – has sold over sixty short stories and won the 2005 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story (‘Slow and Ache’), and the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Short Story (‘Cracks’). His short story collection Reserved for Travelling Shows was published in 2006. Trent sold a series, Death Works, to Orbit UK, US and Australia. Trent has taught creative writing at QUT and Clarion South, and worked as fiction editor of Redsine magazine.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Astropolis 3 – The Grand Conjunction by Sean Williams.

Jason Nahrung grew up on a Queensland cattle property and works as a newspaper journalist in Brisbane. He has travelled widely, both within Australia and internationally, and is a regular attendee at Australian writers conventions. He has been a director and judge for Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards, the Aurealis Awards. His writing has won the William Atheling Jnr award for Criticism or Review, been highly commended in the Aurealis Awards and been shortlisted in the Ditmars and the Australian Shadows.

His debut novel, The Darkness Within (Hachette Australia), based on a novella written with his then girlfriend Mil Clayton, was published in 2007. A German edition came out in 2008 and he is writing further tales set in the same universe.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Canterbury 2100 from Twelfth Planet Press.

Bill is an award winning writer, editor, book reviewer and independent publisher (MirrorDanse Books). His collection of vampire stories is called Epiphanies of Blood, and he is the publisher and co-editor of The Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy anthology series. He has been a judge for Australia’s Aurealis Awards for genre fiction seven times, and did a fifteen year stint as book reviewer for Aurealis Magazine. He works as a technical writer and editor in the emergency services sector.

‘Souls Along The Meridian’ is a prequel to his story in Aurealis Magazine titled ‘The Traps of Tumut’.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Gene Thieves by Maria Quinn.

Kim Westwood first came to prominence when her short story ‘The Oracle’ won a 2002 Aurealis Award. Since then‚ more stories have appeared: in anthologies such as Agog!‚ Eidolon I and Dreaming Again‚ as well as in Year’s Bests in Australia and the USA‚ and on ABC Radio National.

She is the recipient of a prestigious Varuna Writer’s Fellowship for The Daughters of Moab‚ her first novel.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Last Albatross by Ian Irvine.

Louise is an award winning speculative fiction writer. Her previously published works include The Other Face of Janus (HarperCollins) a novel for young adults which won the YA Aurealis Award and was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Awards;  ‘The Little Demon’ a short story for adults included in the anthology Mystery, Magic, Voodoo and the Holy Grail (HarperCollins) and Myfanwy’s Demon (HarperCollins), a novel for young adults. Her  story ‘Weavers of the Twilight’ appeared in Agog! Fantastic Fiction (Agog! Press) and was also a co-winner of the  Aurealis Award for Fantasy short stories.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Star Wars: Force Unleashed by Sean Williams.

Robert Hood writes speculative fiction, generally of a dark nature. Even his science fiction tends to explore those nasty little gooey bits that lurk in our cultural psyche. Why? Only the zombie in his basement knows – and that dude’s not saying. You can find out about Rob’s many published stories, his novels and his non-fiction on his website (where there are even some hints as to why he writes what he does, if you explore). His blog will tell you about giant monsters, zombies, ghosts, robots, aliens and other cinematic and literary things that go bump, crash and squish in the dark night of his soul.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan.

Cat Sparks is a multi-award winning author, editor and publisher with Agog! Press. Her latest book is The Bride Price.

Adam Browne has won five Aurealis Awards. He is the author of Pyrotechnicon (coeur de lion publishing)

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews Incandescence by Greg Egan.

Also in this episode:

Keith Stevenson reviews The Daughters of Moab by Kim Westwood.